The Infinity Project’s final episode can be seen now at iknowcomo.com and my Vimeo page. It’s been an absolute blast working with such talented and funny individuals, and I hope this project helps at least one of us into something legitimate in the future. I learned a lot about comedy, production, and managing a team over the semester, and I’m quite proud of how far we came—literally from nothing at all.

Episode 3 pushes the boundaries a little bit. We wanted to see how different elements played out: obscenity, jokes about murder, and my favorite, the Tiger Woods joke. As an experiment to see what works and what doesn’t, I felt it was important for us to explore the realm of irreverent content to see what we could get away with. In the end, I feel our most successful and best collection of writing came in our second episode, but I’m extremely pleased with the production quality of the third.

One of the most influential photographers of the 1950s, Robert Frank, is the subject of a project I did for my History of Photojournalism course. I think it turned out pretty neat. I wrote, recorded, and edited all of the audio, then used my new favorite site — animoto.com — to put the video together.

Over the past week or so, I’ve been thinking more about how my experience producing this local mock news cast could potentially influence my future career plans. I’ve always considered myself to have a pretty good sense of humor, and I’m finding that I can keep pace with some of our comedians. If my jokes aren’t spot-on, the premise is there. It makes me think I might find success on the level of the Daily Show or the Colbert Report. Of course, it would be nearly impossible for me to arrive at either show without some serious producing abilities, but perhaps it’s something I can train my sights on later in life.

After talking with Ryan Beck, the host of the Infinity Project and a former intern of the Daily Show, he agreed. Getting in the door at either show is a matter of knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time. For now, it’s on my radar and I’ll be keeping a vigilant eye out for any opportunities in that direction. I’m not sure where to start, but one thing I will be doing next semester is helping out with a skit show on the local access channel. You’ve got to begin somewhere, right!?

We’ve worked out a partnership with iknowcomo.com, another project from the Convergence Journalism 4992 Capstone course at Mizzou. Now folks can find our parody news videos alongside helpful advice for nightlife and entertainment in Columbia, Missouri!

The latest and greatest episode of the Infinity Project is online! For the past 2 months, I’ve been working with two other producers and four local comedians to create a local parody news show and study its journalistic capabilities.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been working hard with our writing team on a new script, one that we’ll hopefully have filmed and edited in time to present next week (though with Mizzou’s homecoming events looming this week I’m weary of making that deadline).

As we enter the second half of the semester, I think it’s time we start exploring possibilities for the distribution of our show. Our first goal of the project was to explore whether it was even possible to produce a short-form comedy news show, and I think with just one show finished, we can say yes. It’s certainly a very delicate yes, however, as we’ll have to find a way to sustain the show. Producing at regular intervals is made difficult by student schedules and relying upon comedy writers who really have no stake in the show.

I’m supposed to meet with KOMU’s Jen Reeves for a casual meeting later this week, perhaps with her I’ll brainstorm some ideas for distribution. I’m hoping there’s a space within the new KOMU iPhone app for us somewhere, and some space under the KOMU umbrella. If not, there are some other outlets I think we can piggyback (looking at you iknowcomo.com).